Russia Sends Warships Near Australia and Troops to Ukraine, Reports Say

   (Epoch News) --- Russia is sending warships toward Australia ahead of the G20 meeting, according to Australian media reports on Wednesday. At the same time, NATO has made claims that Russia is deploying troops into eastern Ukraine.

Russian Pacific Navy ships sail near the Sakhalin
Island during military exercises on Tuesday, July 16, 2013.
The maneuvers in Siberia and the far eastern region
involved 160,000 troops and about 5,000 tanks - a massive
show of force unprecedented since the Soviet times.
(AP Photo/RIA Novosti, Alexei Nikolsky, Presidential Press
Service, Pool)

   Australian officials have confirmed that the warships are being monitored, and added that the “movement of these vessels is entirely consistent with provisions under international law for military vessels to exercise freedom of navigation in international waters,” reported SMH.com.au. They are presently “transiting through international waters to the north of Australia,” the Australian defense agency stated

   Defense Force chief Mark Binskin noted its unusual for Russian warships to travel this, suggesting that the Kremlin is attempting to display its power.

   “Their confidence? One of them is an ocean-going tug,” he told the website. “It’s just part of their operation. They are in international waters. They are allowed to do that. They are in our approaches and we will continue to surveil them with air and maritime assets.”

   Australian officials noted that Russia sent naval warships ahead of international meetings in the past.

   “Russian naval vessels have previously been deployed in conjunction with major international summits, such as the APEC meeting in Singapore in 2009. A warship from Russia’s Pacific Fleet also accompanied former Russian President Medvedev’s visit to San Francisco in 2010,” the Defense Force said.

   Meanwhile, NATO said that Russian troops have crossed the border into Ukraine.

   “Russian tanks, Russian artillery, Russian air defence systems and Russian combat troops” were sighted, US Gen Philip Breedlove stated Wednesday, according to the BBC.

   In response, Russia’s defense ministry denied that its troops were there to help pro-Russian militants. The rebels, however, said they were being helped by Russian “volunteers” but didn’t specifically say the Russian army was helping them.